Preserving national icons from the atomic holocaust...

[MKSheppard]

Data is from Atomic Audit:

During the 1950s, the National Park Service had a special unit responsible to relocate the Liberty Bell during hostilities.

In 1952/1953, a special 55 ton vault was built by Mosler Corporation of Hamilton, Ohio (HIPPER!) and installed in the National Archives.

After installation, the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence were lowered each night into the vault after the closing of the Archives to public view to safeguard the documents.

Also, in 1950 the National Gallery of Art had a windowless bunker built at Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, VA. For 20 years, large trucks were kept parked and fuelled there; and started weekly, so that if atomic war was likely, paintings and sculptures could be relocated there.

From 1979 to 1981, the GSA had a Cultural Heritage Preservation Group which was modelled on the British effort in WWII to relocate paintings from London. In the event of war; paintings evacuated from the NGA would have been taken to the High Point Special Facility at MOUNT WEATHER and hung wherever space would allow.

Due to fears of humidity in the bunker, a special rolling box for paintings was designed to allow them to quickly be removed, rolled up and sealed in an airtight case.

Paintings by Vermeer, da Vinci, and Raphael were on the list to be saved.

This led to an interesting question.

What was the Soviet counterpart?

Surely they wouldn't just leave Lenin in his Tomb waiting to be vaporized by US nukes?

[Sea Skimmer]

They moved it to Siberia during WW2; I'd bet Lenin would have been taken into Metro 2 and evacuated from Moscow if the bombs fell, or maybe stashed in a facility under the Kremlin.

[FSTargetDrone]

Data is from Atomic Audit:

During the 1950s, the National Park Service had a special unit responsible to relocate the Liberty Bell during hostilities.

Do you happen to know exactly where it was to be moved?

[Sea Skimmer]

I’d make a wild guess that it would be placed in the vaults of the Philadelphia Mint. Bank vaults like that offered excellent protection from primitive communist fission weaponry and fallout from our atomic warhead Nike Ajax spam.

[edaw1982]

They would be moved into the Metro Tunnels. I mean surviving nuclear fallout *is* what they were designed for.

Atleast, that's my theory.

[LaCroix]

They would be moved into the Metro Tunnels. I mean surviving nuclear fallout *is* what they were designed for.

Atleast, that's my theory.

Really, here I thought that moving people via rail was the primary design goal?
Seriously, they are only 30-40 feet underground (except when they pass hilly terrain, then they might appear to be deeper, as they are straight lines from A to B), and have no real gates and are known to have water leaking into them, which would per definition be bad in case of fallout.

Makeshift bomb shelter? Better than zilch, I guess, but not designed for nuclear events.
Better than being on the surface? Probably, but not much.

Preservative Shelter for objects? Only if you can't help. Bringing paintings down there could only be a very short-term move.

[Sea Skimmer]

Some Metro systems were designed as air raid shelters as early as the 1930s, some were specifically built for nuclear protection or retrofitted later; but most Metros would be complete deathtraps in even a low yield nuclear attack. Its not just that they'll collapse or what have you, but that many systems would massively flood when all the water pipes break from the ground shock.

[Questor]

They would be moved into the Metro Tunnels. I mean surviving nuclear fallout *is* what they were designed for.

Atleast, that's my theory.

Are you referring to Moscow or Philadelphia?

Some metro stations in Moscow do have rather substantial looking gates and odd vaults, but for the most part are not very deep.

The rumored Metro 2, on the other hand...

[Sea Skimmer]

Metro 2 isn't much rumor anymore; it’s been admitted as fact by several former members of Russian government now and the Russian government formally kind of stopped denying it. Also the photos the US has released of its construction are kind of blatant that sometime was going on. For the amount of money the communists spent defending Moscow… building some secret subway lines wasn’t even that big a deal. Lots of long distance foot tunnels also exist. It does remain an open question if all four secret lines really exist or just some of them though, and how big each one really is. They may not be full size metro tunnels.

Some Moscow metro lines are fairly deep, others not so deep. It was designed to function as an air raid shelter from the onset of construction, but nuclear shelter provisions were only built into certain stations. The soil has to be suitable for a bunker to be worth building, and it isn’t the case at all sites because of the high water table and other factors. Moscow of course also has lots and lots of other bunkers which are linked together, some former communication switch rooms are now open to the public.

[Questor]

Anyway, I'd say the Moscow Metro itself is a cultural artifact worth preserving.

The stations are just plain beautiful.

[cosmicalstorm]

I saw a shelter in Moscow on TV a few months ago. It featured a live actions tourist attraction where a lot of heavy doors slammed shut while loudspeakers bleared an angry sounding Russian male voice that shouted what must have been warning of atomic bombardment. It might have even featured simulated nuclear explosions because the whole place started shaking, but that last part might be my bad memory. I wonder if anyone know more about places like these? I would seriously consider traveling to one to see it for myself!

[Uraniun235]

Data is from Atomic Audit:

During the 1950s, the National Park Service had a special unit responsible to relocate the Liberty Bell during hostilities.

...

Also, in 1950 the National Gallery of Art had a windowless bunker built at Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, VA. For 20 years, large trucks were kept parked and fuelled there; and started weekly, so that if atomic war was likely, paintings and sculptures could be relocated there.

From 1979 to 1981, the GSA had a Cultural Heritage Preservation Group which was modelled on the British effort in WWII to relocate paintings from London. In the event of war; paintings evacuated from the NGA would have been taken to the High Point Special Facility at MOUNT WEATHER and hung wherever space would allow.

What would have been the conditions necessary for these plans to have been implemented? In other words, how likely would war have had to be? Would the war warning come from the White House, or was it up to the individual agencies to decide, or...?

[Winston Blake]

I would guess they'd use the DEFCON system. E.g. if any part of the U.S. military goes to DEFCON 1, quick stash the stuff.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its more likely that such a plan would have been carried out when the order was issued to evacuate US cities, otherwise doing it it would just incite a panic anyway.

[ChaserGrey]

There were also some private efforts along the same lines going on. I went to college out in the middle of nowhere in the Berkshire Mountains, and the 24,000 person town our college was in had a world-class art museum. It was started by a wealthy philanthropist in the 50s to try to move at least some cultural objects away from areas that would be targeted.

Our college library was also a Federal document repository for the same reason.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Hey DoZ you live right near Dr. Lawrence's Granddaughter an Emergency Seurgeon and Nuclear Scientist in her own right (she wants nuke space exploration) So grab wife and Visit Amy Lawrence & Spouse.